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Electoral systems of the United Kingdom

Various electoral systems are used for elections in the United Kingdom.

Westminster (general) elections

For Westminister elections, the single member plurality system ('first past the post') is used.

See United Kingdom general elections

Elections to the Scottish Parliament

For elections to the Scottish Parliament, Additional Member System is used.

Scottish_Parliamentary_Election%2C_1999

Local elections

For elections to some English and Welsh local authorities and all Scottish local authorities the single member plurality system is used. Some other local authorities in England and Wales use the multi member plurality system. Districts in Northern Ireland use the Single Transferable Vote system.

European elections

or European elections (except in Northern Ireland where the Single Transferable Vote system is used), regional party list (Closed list) is used.

Directly elected mayors

For directly elected mayors in England, Supplementary vote is used.

Electoral reform

The current system

The First Past the Post system, used for general elections, is non-proportional. Of the candidates standing in a given constituency, the one who receives the highest number of votes is elected. In practice in the vast majority of constituencies there will be more than two parties standing candidates. As such, candidates do not have to receive 50 or more percent of the vote to win. (The present government, for instance, was formed on the basis of around 40% of the vote, nationally.) This lack of proportional representation means that votes do not translate directly into seats. Therefore, it does not give parties a parliamentary party size directly related to the percentage vote they received. Thus, large parties have an advantage at the expense of small parties, larger than their votes warrant.

Consequences

Votes do not translate directly into seats. For example, in the last election Labour won 60% of the seats with only 40% of the vote. The system also means that the party with the most seats in parliament may not have had the most votes. Supporters of the First Past the Post system like the direct link it provides between voters and their local MP, and also the fact that it tends to produce strong governments (and there is virtually no chance of coalition government).

According to Duverger's law, a first-past-the-post voting system naturally leads to a two-party system. This certainly seems borne out in the history of British parliamentary politics. However, the British political culture is not a 'pure' two-party system. The Liberal Democrat party has 53 of the 659 Commons seats in the 2001 Parliament, and several nationalist (regional) groupings sit, leading some spectators to regard the Westminster parliament as a "two and a half" party system.

Some people say that by discouraging minority parties, the system acts as a defence against extremist parties such as the BNP; on the other hand, critics believe that the system unfairly discriminates against smaller parties and is undemocratic.

Recent reforms

The Additional Member System was introduced by devolution by Labour in 1999 for the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly and Greater London Assembly. The Single Transferable Vote system was introduced for the Northern Ireland Assembly. The regional party list (Closed list) system is used for European elections.

Labour's pledged in its manifesto for the 1997 general election to set up a commission on alternatives to the first-past-the-post system for general elections and hold a referendum in the future on whether to change the system.

Labour made these commitments for two reasons: Labour believed they might need the Liberal Democrat for support or to form a coalition if they did not win the election with an outright majority and it was part of New Labour's modernising image. The first of the pledges was not met, there has been no referendum and none is planned for the future. The second was: Labour set up the Independent Commission on the Voting System, also known as the Jenkins Commission, chaired by Lord Jenkins in December 1997. It reported in October 1998 and suggested the Alternative vote top-up or AV+ system. However this was ignored by the government and no action has been taken.

The reasons were that firstly Labour won the 1997 elections with a massive majority and secondly, it did not need Liberal Democrat support by also there was pressure from Labour traditionalists ('Old Labour') to abandon electoral reform (they saw Labour did not need it to win elections. After Labour's failure to win an outright majority in the proportional hybrid AMS elections to the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly, the case for reform within the Labour party was further diminished.

Support from opposition parties

Electoral reform, towards a proportional model, is desired by the Liberal Democrat party, the Green and other parties. The Liberal Democrats favour Single Transferable Vote. These smaller parties would benefit in terms of parliamentary representation if PR was introduced.

The Tories are predominantly against PR. One reason for this is that, despite the Conservative party not necessarily losing more political power than Labour might, it would find itself politically isolated on the right. This would allow the possibility of the Labour party remaining in power indefinitely through a string of minority government coalitions with any combination of the Liberal Democrats, Greens or newly represented socialist parties.

Arguments for and against reform

Advocates of proportional representation argue that firstly it would be more representative of the electoral, as votes would roughly directly translate in seats. Fewer votes would be wasted and there would be less tactical voting.

If it caused coalitions, this would lead to much more emphasis on consensus and better representing the combined will of the electorate.

Opponents claim that this makeup would be democratically opaque and subject to abuse and corruption, as well as giving small parties more power than their vote alone would suggest they deserve and it would allow extremists, such as the BNP to gain real political power. They also argue the MP constituency link would be lost (but would not be the case if the [[[Alternative vote top-up]] system), as the Jenkins Commission suggested.

Low Turnout

Voter apathy is a concern currently. The turnout in the last election in 2001 was just 59%. The main reasons identified for low turnout are:

Decline in partisanship.
Reduction in the popularity of leader of parties.
Dissatifaction with parties' record on public services, education, transportation etc.
Lack of interest with the election campaign.

Possible measures to reduce low turnout

Compulsory voting, like in Australia.
Electoral reform, i.e. introducing a new electoral system.
New ways of voting, e.g. by post, telephone, internet.

Party systems

Traditionally, the UK has had a two party system. Pre-war the main parties were the Tories and the Liberals, post-war, the main parties were the Conservative and Labour. However, after the large number of votes and respectable number of seats the Liberal Democrats received in the last two elections, some have challenged the view Britain still has a two party system. Also, the performance of parties differs significantly in differently elections. It can be argued that the the party system of European elections, for example is two party.

History

The system of universal suffrage did not exist in Britain until 1928 From 1688-1831, less than 5% of the adult population had the right to vote.

The first act to increase the size of the electorate was the First Reform Act (known as the Great Reform Act) 1832. This created the electoral register. The overall result of the Act was that the electorate was increased to 7% of the adult population.

The Second Reform Act 1867